Archive for month: June 2017

This Christian life is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart. When Jesus said come and die to self He was not kidding. Being a bible based Christian in this world today is difficult. Fighting against the norms of everyday life and preparing ourselves for the decisions we make today and how they will effect our future can be overwhelming. If you’re anything like me I tend to overthink, over reflect, overly examine myself and every situation I am facing. I am prone to over think how my decisions, my words, my actions are going to affect others. This is an area God continues to work in my own life.

In addition, what makes this more difficult is the knowledge of knowing what God expects of me because I know his word. I believe His word to be true and that truth applies to EVERY area of my life not just the areas I pick and choose to be the easiest. That is where this gets more difficult in this world. Same days it’s overwhelming to me. It’s overwhelming because of the emotions which come along with it, the fact that my choosing Jesus will cost me relationships, it could cost me approval, it could cost me security, it could cost me EVERYTHING. But Jesus didn’t say this life would be full of pleasure, in fact in John 16:33 Jesus tells us that here on earth we will experience trials and sorrows but to take heart, because Jesus has overcome the world. 2 Timothy 3:12, Indeed, all who delight in pursuing righteousness and are determined to live godly live in Christ Jesus will be hunted and persecuted (because of their faith).

The other part of this is those expectations. Those things we know we should be doing but we are not. The expectations are something that seem so unachievable. The fact is that I cannot achieve perfection no matter how hard I try. That is exactly why Jesus came to reconcile a perfect God to imperfect man. But at the same time, this doesn’t give me license to ignore the things God clearly expects of me as Christian. Clearly ignoring these expectations once I know is disobedience and rebellion.

The Good News

In all of this there is good news, God did not tell me I had to do this all of my own. I was raised to work hard, if you want anything done, you must put in the work and achieve it on your won. It’s a daily battle I fight. The fight to not go about things alone. Not to accomplish things in my own strength. Because when we do things on our own strength, who gets the glory? Surely, God does not get the glory. Until I accepted Jesus Christ, I don’t think I even thought about that. It didn’t even factor into my decisions. Praise God that he sent a helper, the Holy Spirit to help me and guide me. The only way to survive is with the Holy Spirit, guiding every thought, every action and every decision. The only way to live and survive this Christian life is to not do it alone.